


I'm just like you

by QueenOfRavenss



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Android, Android Human love, Cyberpunk, F/M, M/M, Past Relationship(s), minor allura/lance, past Hunk/Keith
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2018-01-30
Packaged: 2019-02-24 14:22:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 16,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13215618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenOfRavenss/pseuds/QueenOfRavenss
Summary: (On Hiatus till I can find the will to finish something that on one cares for)Keith has lived an unfortunate life, he thought it would be better by joining the Generals Gang, but that only added to his misfortune. All he ever wanted was to be loved and cared for by a family. But instead all he got was a dangerous mission to capture this 'Champion' from Galra corps. To make matters worse he ends up having to do baby sitting duties of said 'Champion' who will end up changing his life.





	1. Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my exchange fic for the sheithsecretSanta 2017! Thank you Opaldelight for your prompts, this is a genre I am unfamiliar with and writing this has really worked my writers muscles! I hope you enjoy this fic! it's in three parts because it took a life of it's own!

Keith lived an unfortunate life. His existence was a problem so, no one cared for him; Not even his family, who abandoned him as a child. As he grew older that fact didn’t change. The caregivers and teachers called him a problem child, always getting into things he wasn't supposed too, hitting his classmates, throwing fits. He just wanted their attention. Apparently people only gave a fuck about a child was when he was doing something bad. As he hit puberty the problems began to grow, he got into more trouble. He skipped class, started smoking, hanging out with the other outcasts and rejects. He was passed along school after school, home after home. But no one really cared. In his later teenage years, he was known as that loner kid who liked stabbing people for fun. This meant, no friends for Keith. All he wanted was for someone to care about him. He was so desperate to make meaningful bonds, to have a family. He made the worst decision in his entire life. He joined the Generals gang.  
At first Keith thought he felt the happiest he had ever been. He finally had everything he ever wanted, a family, people who cared about him. They never judged him for acting out or getting into trouble, in fact they supported it. But, all good things come to an end, he was sure now, it was only the high talking. The high of belonging somewhere. Sure he did drugs like they convinced him to. But the high he got from belonging with them was more addictive than any of their drugs could ever be. Belonging with them, made him feel powerful, invinceable, _cared for_. But once the high wore off he felt the crash and burn. No deed went unpunished. Once the favors started coming in, he realized what being in a gang truly intelled. They asked things of him that completely went against his morals, but as a young and lonely individual all they had to do to convince him was to threaten rejection. He was putty in their hands and Keith soon found himself in a situation with no escape.

 

This mission really took the cake, this was just more than ‘you could be killed mission’. This secret organization could do so much worse to him than kill him. To say Keith was terrified was an understatement. Sure Keith can be overconfident but his confidence came from trust in his training and ability. He knew he could do it even if there was a chance he could die. That was fine with him. Plus it wasn’t like his previous missions included multi trillion dollar industry that behind closed doors stole people off the streets for experiments. Experiments he had absolutely no knowledge of. He only knows the basics. Well more like only told the basics when the boss, gave him this mission. Sometimes it was a blessing to not know, but the human mind has a sick fascination of thinking of the worst things that can happen to him. He was too experienced now to act like a youngblood and psyching themselves out before a mission, but as soon as he entered the automatic doors, he knew he was in some deep shit. The pure whiteness of the labs gave Keith an eerie feeling. It gave him the impression that anything they find unsightly it would be immediately eradicated. Like he would be, if he was caught. He trekked through the halls and rooms with cause. He had two things he had to do on this mission. 1. Capture the Champion and 2. Collect all information on said Champion. The hacking part was easy, their informat, Pidge, has the best hacking devices and codes. That was the easy part. The hard part was getting the Champion out of the facility without raising suspicion. There was no room for failure, he only had one shot.  


He walks up to a computer and placing the hacking device into it, within seconds all the information he needed was downloaded. He looked through part of the files to find the location of the Champion, once he found the location he placed Pidge’s diversion drive into the system. Once that was set he headed straight towards the “Champion” room. Keith waited till the diversion drive ordered the sentries to go somewhere else. He didn’t know where because he didn’t really care since it wasn’t anywhere near where he was. Once he entered the room, his eyes widened in shock. Nothing in the mission details had prepared him for this. At the end of the room was a large tube filled with a mysterious purple liquid and what looked like a person with tubes connected into him. The man or android was almost naked. He wore some kind of plug suit, it covered his collarbones, cover his neck and draping over to the shoulders. This material, was some kind of light metal alloy, there was a skin tight nearly see through cloth material cover the rest of his skin. The same strange metal alloy, was across his waist but for some reason they (whoever design this suit) didn’t see fit to cover his dick which for some reason they decided to even give this android. The next metal alloy part was the thigh high boots, there where tubes going into each plug that the metal alloy material was placed. His skin looked like skin except for his right arm which clearly looked like a robotic prosthetic, which had the most tubes plugged into it. The android looked to be sleeping, his long black hair moving in the liquid, except for the streak of maybe light purple on his side bang. Keith walked up closer to the tube, the android eyes were closed he wore a peaceful expression as he slept. Keith was entranced with the man’s beauty, without thinking he brought up his hand and placed it on the the glass. Immediately his palm was scanned, a robotic voice spoke from the screen that appeared on the glass.  


“The Champion is not ready for use” okay so this was an android, why was he being sent to capture an android, he’ll have to ask Pidge later for more details because he knows his boss will not tell him otherwise. And why did the screen say he was not ready for use? Were they uploading a new program or something?  


“Computer, why isn’t The Champion ready for use?” he asked he didn’t sound confident that it will respond to him but he’ll have to try.  


“Download is 56% ready download will be complete in approximately 4.5 hours” the computer answered dutifully. The most trusted AI system to keep downloads stable. The Honerva system.  


“What is the program being downloaded?” Keith asked letting his curiosity getting the best of him, plus when dealing with his boss, it was best to have as much information as he could. He extracted an extra copy of Pidge’s extraction drive and plugged it into the screen part of the glass.  


“The Kuron system, downloading copy onto drive” the computer narrated, causing Keith to roll his eyes.  


“Delete history of download” it narrated once again, he decided he’ll learn about this later. Suddenly realizing what he was actually here to do. He took out the drive as soon as the data was downloaded. He then pressed a button on the screen that drained the strange purple liquid from the tube, once it was fully drained most of the tubes unplugged themselves and the glass dissipated the android was up right for half a second before falling forward. Keith caught him before he could hit the ground, he felt slight movements in his arms indicating the android had awakened. Keith could feel the weight him his arms lighten as the android stood on his own feet. He was taller than Keith, and he was staring down at Keith with sleepy grey eyes, it eerily looked too human like, until two lines traveled down his eyes, indicating that he scanned Keith’s face. They stare at each other for a few moments, before being startled by alarms. _Shit of course they would have a notification system for this you idiot_ , Keith thinks taking his jacket off and tying it around the android’s waist to at least give him some privacy.  


“What’s happening?!” the man spoke sounding distressed looking all around him, Keith ripped out the remaining tubes, on his robotic looking arm, then grabbed his hand leading him out of the room.  


“No time to explain but I’m getting you out of here” Keith said, taking the escape route planned out during mission briefing.  


“Out of here?” the man repeated in disbelief, Keith pulled them into the closet waiting for guards to pass them. Keith looked at him and nodded.  


“Is that possible?!” the android asked a little to loudly for Keith’s liking.  


“Shhhh!” he whispered covering the android’s mouth listening to the footsteps coming closer, Keith’s heart beat widely getting ready his knife in case he would have to use it. The footsteps went in front of the closet door before moving on getting a quiet sigh of relief from Keith. They waited in the closet for several moments before venturing out and heading towards the exit.  


“Hold it right there!” a guard called out, Keith quickly opened the door and pushed the android through. The guard used this opportunity to shoot Keith and got him in the shoulder. He shouted out in pain as the door shut.  


“You’re hurt!” the android said looking at Keith’s shoulder with concern, he pulled out his knife and stabbed the lockscreen, effectively closing off that door. Sometimes it was a better idea to smash than hack.  


“I’m fine let’s go!” Keith said he pushing him towards their escape route, biting through the searing pain, they continued down the many corridors, that he spent weeks simulating navigating through, coming at stop. A group of guards blocked their path that led outside to the sewers, that was the escape route. Keith let go of his shoulder holding out his knife, he wasn’t in the best condition to fight but he’s been in worse before so that’s not gonna stop him. They are so close.  


“Step away from the champion or we’ll use lethal force” the head guard ordered as the rest if then aimed at Keith. Ah, the illusion of choice, as if they’d let him live after this, acting like they were merciful people to try to get his guard down.  


“Lethal force..?” the android repeated in surprise holding his hand up to his mouth. Keith stepped in front of the champion, he wasn’t about to bank of them not wanting to damaged their precious champion.  


“Stay back, I’ll take care of this” Keith said, the champion put his hand on Keith’s shoulder trying to pull him back.  


“No please let’s just go back-” the champion began as the captain of the guards ordered ‘Fire’.  


“Don’t!” The champion shouted as the guards aimed their blasters at Keith, he went to dodge when the champion’s firm grip held him in place. Beams of light in the form of wings surrounded them both shielding them from the blaster shots. The champion, or what they should have called him, angel, stepped in front of him activating his right arm. The champion quickly killed the guards, and deactivated his arm and wings, he quickly walked back up to Keith with a concerned look on his face, the guards blood was splattered all over him.  


“Are you alright? You didn’t get any more shots?” he said inspecting Keith's body for more injuries. Keith looked at him in shock and fear, just what had he gotten himself into. The Champion shied away a tad bit, seeing the fearful look on Keith’s face. Keith didn’t have time to fully contemplate his life choices, he heard shouts from more guards indicating that they needed to leave. Now. Keith, shook himself out of his shock and set off Pidge’s EMT, android and cyborg friendly, bomb; Grabbed the Champion’s hand, lead them out of the building and into the sewers. 

 

Somehow, Keith manages to get to them to his home, as soon as they got outside he had slapped on a cloaking device on the champion, and came out of the sewers and walking several blocks, without being seen. Of course it helped that it was late at night, everyone was asleep and it helped that the android had censors so they could hide with ease. For some reason The Champion, had taken to carrying him the entire way to his good sized apartment. The Champion laid Keith on his bed, he frantically looked through every crevice he could to find searching for anything to help with Keith’s blaster wound. It was kinda sweet to have someone, even a droid he just busted out, care this much about him. But he was fine, all he will need to do is apply some healing goo and he was good to go.  


“Hey” Keith called out to The Champion, who was looking through his closet, he still wore Keith’s jacket around his waist. Somehow with all the running, and fighting they did the jacket stayed in place. It was a relief because 1. He loved that jacket and 2. The Champion deserved at least some privacy. He wasn’t exactly the one for robot rights or any of the shit, but androids were a grey area with him. He didn’t like them but they were a little to human for his liking so he didn’t feel comfortable treating them sub-humanly. The Champion acted more like a human than any other android he came across. He was like the perfect combination of robot and human, the embodiment of an android. Why would his boss want the champion? Or better yet, what was the use of The Champion to Lotor? It was clear he was powerful more powerful than the sentries that fight in the intergalactic army. Keith didn’t have it in him to continue thinking about the reason why he would want The Champion, he just new he wanted it and that was all that mattered. Perhaps Keith just didn’t want to know so he didn’t have to feel the guilt of any possible destruction.  


“Hey!” Keith said again this time more loudly, this caught the Champion’s attention, he turned to look at Keith and quickly rushed over to him.  


“What?” he asked eyes filled with concern and guilt, Keith took out his phone strictly used for work and dialed his boss’s number. It was old school, but it was something that couldn’t be hacked, so it worked.  


“The healing goo is in the bathroom down the hall to your left, it’s held in the cabinet and please help yourself to some clothes in my closet” Keith instructed, pointing out each direction. Hoping that the Champion will find his way giving him enough time to talk to his boss. The Champion nodded and went on his quest, as soon as The Champion left Keith hit the call button.  


“Is it done?” his boss’s voice immediately said into the phone, it was clear he didn’t want any details.  


“Yes, The Champion is with me at my house as we speak and I got all the data on him as well” Keith explained looking down the hall and hearing the Champion fumble through his bathroom.  


“Excellent work, I will be there as soon as I can to retrieve it” his boss praised hanging up the phone. By the time The Champion returned Keith was texting Pidge telling him the success of her ‘babies’. The Champion, peaked curiosity at the communicator, Keith looked at him raising his eyebrow in confusion, he leaned back blushing with embarrassment.  


“I’m surprised and impressed by your creators attention to detail, they even have a blushing mechanic designed into you” Keith commented watching the blush deepen.  


“I-uh-thank you?” he responded looking confused, he was cute. Keith then placed his communicator on his nightstand, he sat up and crossed his legs, removing his shirt as The Champion stood there, seemingly patiently. Once the shirt was off, he inspected the wound on Keith’s shoulder. It was burnt but had a small hole in it. Keith could feel his hesitancy, he looked at the tube it read “Healing touch” that was the stupid brand for the healing goo. He uncapped it and gave it back to The Champion who gave him a questioning look.  


“You put the goo on the wound and the put a gauze graph over it” Keith explained, the Champion nodded before realizing he didn’t have the gauze. Before he could leave Keith grabbed the goo and started squeezing the tube.  


“No let me!” The Champion said, grabbing the tube back looking distressed, Keith looked at him in shock and held up his arms in defence.  


“Alright! I just thought I’d make it easier but if you insist!” Keith said putting his arms down and watched as the Champion applied the healing goo on his wound. It instantly felt better.  


“It’s my fault you got hurt, so this is the least I could do” the Champion explained looking ashamed.  


“It’s not your fault, don’t blame yourself for this, I wasn’t being careful” Keith explained, the Champion didn’t looked convinced.  


“Besides these kind of wounds are easy to fix, the blasters cauterise the wound so you don’t get blood loss and the healing goo” Keith explained holding up the tube.  


“Does a mighty fine job of treating it, so don’t feel bad” Keith said putting the tube on the stand.  


“You’re lucky this guard had the incapacitate mode on or this blaster would have gone through your shoulder” The Champion informed looking at the ground, Keith stared at him for a moment.  


“That’s why it’s not a big deal, I was lucky, I don’t bother worrying over what could have beens since they didn’t happen” Keith simply explained, The Champion looked up at him with concerned eyes. Why was he looking at him like that? It made Keith feel uncomfortable so he looked away, The Champion stood there for a moment before walking back to the bathroom. Well he has good common sense, Keith thought to himself. The Champion came back with the gauze graph, he held up it and looking unsure of himself. Keith nodded indicating he had grabbed the right item, The Champion smiled and walked up to Keith. He pulled out a square curiously, feeling it and turning it every which way he could.  


“See the film, you take it off and then place it on the injury” Keith explained pointing at said film, the Champion nodded and did as he was told, he gently placed the gauze graph on the injury. He looked proud of himself, it was pretty cute-well cute as an android built for possible destruction could be at least.  


“Thanks” Keith said watching the Champion’s face beam, again he was pretty cute for a weapon.  


“You’re too kind, there’s no need to thank me” he said holding the box of gauze close to him.  


“Of course there is, you were being nice” Keith said, as he started getting up from the bed. The Champion, rushed forward putting his hands on Keith’s shoulders holding in place.  


“No you must rest!” he said Keith rolled his eyes in annoyance, the concern was flattering but treating him like he was something delicate got on his nerves. But he’ll give this android a pass since he has been cooped up in a lab surrounded by nerds all day.  


“Look I know your concerned but I’m fine, look I’m all patched up” Keith said pointing to the gauze and waving his hand for emphasis. The Champion looked at him in thought before relenting.  


“Sor-” he began shying in to himself, for someone who just killed guards he could be surprisingly shy. Or maybe that he wasn’t shy, maybe he just had a hard time interacting with people. Keith can work with that. He was never a people person either.  


“Don’t apologize, now let’s put some clothes on you” Keith said walking towards his closet. He doubts he’ll find anything that will fit since the Champion was built like a Greek God. But Keith was gonna try anyway, he can’t stay in that revealing plug suit forever.  


“I don’t even want to deal with the teasing I’ll get from him if you aren’t dressed” Keith mentioned off handedly, the Champion gave him a concerned yet confused look.  


“Is that something bad?” he questioned watching Keith look through the closet and tossing clothes on the floor without care. Keith shrugs pulling out some stretchy sweats he’s only worn once and technically they weren’t his, they were Hunks. He was downsizing his wardrobe because he was gaining weight and Keith might have actually thrown up on his lap during one drunken party at Hunk’s place. So Hunk just gave him a pair of sweats. Let’s see if I have that stretchy sweater he thought to himself, it was also originally Hunk’s as well. Where did I put that thing? Keith questioned shuffling through clothing after clothing but no bright yellow sunflower sweatshirt that he didn’t really intend on giving back. He’ll just have to tell his boss he really wanted the sweatshirt back. He opened up a box of clothing hoping to find the sweatshirt, he dug through it and at the bottom he finally found the damn thing.  


“Ah ha!” Keith exclaimed swiping the yellow sweatshirt with a sunflower print on it. This will have to do for now. Keith turns back to the Champion handing him the articles of clothing, he just looked at the clothes in his hands and then back at Keith.  


“You-you do know how to put on clothes right?” Keith questioned, _please for the love space_ The Champion looked at him and slowly shook his head, _great just fucking great_ , Keith brought his hand up to rub his face.  


“Sor-” The Champion began Keith put his hand on over his mouth, he grabbed the sweats just wanting to get that part over with.  


“Don’t be, I mean why would they program you to know how to put on clothes?” Keith said more to himself than the Champion.  


“Well, I think I usually wake up wearing some weird suits….” he said, putting serious thought into it and looking down at himself.  


“You’re not sure?” Keith questioned, why would he be unsure? Did he have memory problems? Keith questioned in disbelief.  


“I don’t remember” he answered looking lost, Keith felt bad for him, but this raised the questioned, why would they implement brain development program to include memories that could be forgotten or what kind of horrors did he have to go through to forget memories? He hopes at whatever his boss had in mind, it wasn’t gonna be worse than what he had to go through at Galra corp.  


“Oh, well for the sweats, it’s easy you just put one leg in the leg hole at a time and pull up” Keith explained hastily changing the subject, he didn’t want to delve further into it, the guilt that was starting to sprout up made him uneasy. He reached to take back his jacket from the Champion’s waist and turning around to give him privacy, he placed the sweater on the bed then going to the turning his leave being careful to not look at the changing android.  


“Wait!” The Champion said, Keith stopped at the door waiting for what he was about to say.  


“C-Can you help me get this suit off?” The Champion asked nervously, Keith stood at the door for a moment, before turning around and walking back towards the android.  


“How do I do that?” Keith asked inspecting the metal alloy, The Champion just shrugged, he messed around with the suit before slipping on pressing what looked like a button on the suit, and poked the back of his neck, the suit dissipated. Now the Champion was completely naked now, this information made Keith blush. Why was that the button?  


“Your face is red too!” The Champion commented touching his face, Keith gentle grabbed the hand and pulled it away from his face.  


“Yep, sure is” Keith agreed, hastily walking to the doorway of his room, he was about to leave before remembering something.  


“I’ve left the sweater on the bed, and I want that sweater back by the way, to put on the sweater, you just put your arms through the arm holes” Keith explained now closing the door. He walked past the living room and into the kitchen. He started making tea for his boss, because he was a giant baby who had to have his tea from his hosts. As Keith was pouring the cup of tea he heard a knock on at the front door. No doubt who it was. He opened the front door, there stood Lotor, his boss, and his right hand, Axcia.  


“Where is it?” Lotor asked cutting to the chase as per usual, he stepped inside with Axcia in toe.  


“I’ll get him, there’s tea on the kitchen counter” Keith explained, Lotor wasn’t looking at him but past him, he looked amused which was never a good sign. He turned around and saw The Champion wearing the sweatshirt, but only had the sleeves on, the rest of the fabric stretch across his chest and the hoodie part was dangling, the sweats were the worst part they were way to low on his body, The Champion was holding them up with his hands. Keith stared at the scene in disbelief for a few seconds before he quickly walked over, helping The Champion put on the clothes proper which meant, Lotor got to see him tie sweats onto this android without a shirt on. Keith’s face was beat read with embarrassment, at least The Champion, had the decency to look embarrassed as well.  


“I see you’re getting friendly with the android, didn’t know you were into that” Lotor teased, with his stupid smug smirk on his face. He really wanted to wipe that smirk off his face but he’ll just settle with putting too much sugar in his tea. Keith glared and dug in his pocket and gave Lotor the drive that the data was collected on from the Facility.  


“Just for that I’m putting lots of sugar in your tea” Keith fired back walking back to the kitchen and doing just that and handing it to Lotor, who only chuckled. The Champion just looked back and forth between them with trying to figure out what was going on. Lotor then turns his attention towards The Champion, inspecting him for whatever before looking satisfied. He turned back to Keith looking impressed, that was always a good sign.  


“Excellent work Keith, I knew I could count on you, I’ll give you raise, the payment should be in your account by tonight” Lotor complimented, Keith felt a little pride from the compliment. It had been years since he looked at Lotor with rose colored glasses, but he couldn’t seem to shake off feeling great for impressing him. The Champion looked on at the scene getting increasingly uncomfortable. He grabbed Keith arm pulling him closer to him.  


“Keith, what’s going on?” he mumbled not minding the inquisitive look from Lotor. He catches on fast, Keith didn’t recall ever mentioning his name to the android.  


“This is my boss, he is the one sent me to get you” Keith explained seeing a hurt look on The Champion’s face.  


“What does that mean?” he questions, Keith goes to answer his question but the words don’t come out of his mouth. He was starting to feel overwhelmed with guilt the more he looked at the hurt expression. Perhaps Hunk was right, he was secretly a softie. Before Keith could articulate respond Lotor answered for him.  


“It means, you’ll be under my care, I sent Keith to get you out of that facility and now I’ve come to retrieve you from his care” he carefully explained with that silver tongue of his.  


“Where will you take me?” The Champion asked, squeezing Keith’s arm harder, but not enough to hurt him.  


“To my place, it’s a lot bigger than it is here” he explained, a not exactly a lie Keith thought, he practically did live in his lab, oh yeah also the fact it was located right under his house.  


“.....I don’t like big houses” The Champion said, catching the surprise of everyone.  


“You don’t like big houses?” Axcia repeated in disbelief, out of all the things to respond to, he chooses that.  


“I can make use of the greenhouse outback as a house if you’d like smaller houses” Lotor said without missing a beat, typical Lotor.  


“I don’t like” was the immediate response, getting a scandalous look from Axcia, it was pretty funny. Keith remembers when he was on the receiving end of that look.  


“It’s safer at my place” Lotor persisted unbothered by the rejections, in fact he looked amused which again wasn’t a good sign.  


“I can make this place safe” The Champion countered getting a wide smirk from Lotor as if he just confirmed something.  


“Is that so?” Lotor questioned, he was clearly enjoying this little game he was playing poor android didn’t know he was being toyed with.  


“Yes” he said with full confidence, holding out his arm like he was gonna activate it. Okay time to calm the situation.  


“Lotor stop riling him up” Keith said pulling his arm back from The Champion. Lotor didn’t look like he was gonna stop.  


“Alright I suppose I overstepped my welcome, we’ll take our leave, you’ve earned a vacation for the next couple of weeks” Lotor explained motioning for The Champion to come to him. He just stood there eyeing Lotor, who did not look the slightest bit surprised. He was up to something.  


“I’m not going with you” The Champion said, activating his arm, Keith immediately stepped in front of Lotor trying to calm The Champion down.  


“Take it easy, there’s no need for fight” Keith said, this was new, normally it was Lotor or Axcia holding him back from fighting someone.  


“Then where will you go?” Lotor questioned, getting a confused look from the Champion.  


“Last time I checked, you are a wanted droid, it’s going to be difficult to stay uncover without assistance” Lotor continued, The Champion didn’t look undeterred.  


“I’ll figure it out” The Champion said a little uneasily, Keith was starting to have second thoughts about handing this android to Lotor when he didn’t want to go. He was about to say something when Lotor’s hands rested on Keith’s shoulders.  


“I’ll make you a deal, since you and Keith here seem to get along I’ll allow you to stay here” Lotor offered, getting surprised looks from everyone.  


“What?!” Keith said trying to turn around to look at Lotor, who probably had an amused expression on his face.  


“Sir, are you sure this is a good idea?” Axcia piped in.  


“But, Axcia get’s to do check ups” Lotor continued ignoring Keith and Axcia’s protests. The Champion looked thoughtfully or a moment.  


“Are you sure there’s no way that they can’t find us?” The Champion asked, he was seriously considering staying here.  


“Can’t you just rent him an apartment?” Keith chimed in looking between the two, didn’t he have a choice in the matter? Dumb question. No he didn’t.  


“I don’t intend to let them ever find either of you, so do we have a deal?” Lotor asked holding out his hand to shake. The Champion stared at the hand for a moment before shaking it ending the deal. Keith rubbed his hands on his face in frustration. 

“Why couldn’t he stay at Axcia’s house? How am I gonna explain this to my neighbors? They already question about you and Axcia, do you know how many times I’ve had to explain that no, you are not my sugar daddy and Axcia isn’t my girlfriend. And no I’m not apart of some swinger relationship with my apparent sugar daddy and supposed girlfriend!” Keith irritatedly rambled, Axcia gave him a questioning look before stepping inside the car.  


“Listen it is clear, he is not going to come with me no matter what I say, and that’s no way to gain his trust. For my plans to work I need his trust and information. He seems taken with you, so I’m entrusting you to turn him to our side. Do I make myself clear?” Lotor commanded, the tone he used left no room for argument. This was a mission, make friends with the android, got it.  


“Yes, sir” Keith responded there was no use in arguing, but Keith sure as hell was gonna complain about it.  


“I’ll send Axcia to do testing every Tuesday, I expect you to help her, every now and then I’ll come visit. If you need anything regarding The Champion you know how to contact me” Lotor explained stepping inside the car next to Axcia.  


“Understood” Keith said, enthusiastically hearing a high pitched giggle from the car. Oh fucking great.  


“Looks like Keith has babysitting duties” Ezor teased poking her head out of Zethrid’s driver side window, Keith was not in the mood for her teasing. In fact he was never in the mood for it.  


“Piss off, Ezor” Keith muttered rolling his eyes, she stuck her tongue at him in response before being booted by Zethrid.  


“One more thing” Lotor added “don’t get too attached to him, he is still just a machine” and with that the car was off.  
Keith stepped back inside the apartment, The Champion moved from the window to the hallway of the front door. Well since he’ll be living here now, he should have a name.  


“What’s your name?” Keith asked walking past him and to the couch, this is going to be his bed for the time being. He only had one bedroom, in this small apartment, but since Lotor owns this complex it’s easy to find another apartment. Keith looks back at The Champion since he hadn’t replied yet, his face looked thoughtful.  


“I don’t recall them calling me anything other than The Champion” he said solemnly, this tugged at Keith’s heart strings. The Champion was a good title, not a good name.  


“Well I guess we’ll have to give you one” Keith decided, The Champion looked at him like he just said something completely mind blowing.  


“A name?” he repeated with disbelief, Keith nodded. Walking towards the hallway closet and pulling out extra blanket and pillows.  


“Yeah, it’ll be easier to say than The Champion, plus it kinda leaves a bad taste in your mouth saying it, all things considered” Keith said, placing the blanket and pillow on the couch and pressing a button that turned it into a makeshift bed.  


“You don’t have to do that for me, you’ve done enough” The Champion said, looking flustered, watching as Keith was setting up a bed for him. How cute.  


“Not really, just following orders-and oh!” Keith exclaimed, as the idea hit him. The Champion looked at him curiously patiently waiting for what Keith had to say.  


“How does Takashi Shirogane sound?” Keith suggested, The Champion looked stunned.  


“That’s…” he began looking uncertain.  


“Shiro for short” Keith offered, the android, looked in thought for a moment before saying.  


“Shiro?....That actually has a nice ring to it” Shiro said beaming, his smile was infectious Keith couldn’t help but smile too.  


“Welcome to my apartment, Shiro” Keith welcome trying his best to offer a welcoming smile. If they were gonna live together they might as well get along.


	2. Friendly Cyborg

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith tries to be a good caretaker and get Shiro the essentials he needs to live life outside of a lab but Shiro is being stubborn and would rather watch TV. Keith has the added pressure of avoided his nosy neighbors, what is a guy suppose to do to get some work around here?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this is a bit late, so I hope this really long chapter will make up for it!

Keith had finished setting up the second room addition to the apartment, complete with a bed, closet, desk and whatever little decoratives Shiro wanted. Shiro watched as the construction bots started building the second room with awe. His neighbors are for sure to notice that Keith added an addition to his apartment after telling them time after time that he won't add a second bedroom. Especially since they were so adamant that Lotor and Axica were his secret lover. He hopes the ‘do not disturb’ sign on his door will at least hold them off a few days, he knows that no matter how nosy Hunk is he’ll give Keith some space and convince the others to do that as well. So he can get Shiro comfortable and situated here before he starts meeting everyone. They can be overwhelming. 

“This is amazing, I didn’t know such technology existed” Shiro said as the second bedroom went into its final stages. 

“They have some at the facility they held you at but I don’t think they were around while you were up” Keith said recalling the trouble he had to go through just to steal one bot just to map out the facility. 

“Really?! I never really saw much, other than the lights and people with masks…..” Shiro said trailing off, his expression turning dark. 

“Y-Yeah, I actually stole one, we needed a way to map out the facility, Pidge gave me this device that allowed me to steal one without raising alarm. But it was still tricky to use” Keith explained, not knowing what to do about Shiro’s change in mood. He watched Shiro shake his head slightly and directed his gaze towards him.

“It sounds like you did a lot of work to bust me out” Shiro said with a faint smile on his face. Keith nodded in agreement, it took several months of planning and reconience before the final part of the mission could even begin.

“Months of planning and reconience, after this mission I’ll be set for life” Keith said, at least I hope that’ll be it, he thought to himself. You couldn’t exactly leave the gang but you could go into a pseudo retirement, from missions at least. But every once and a while Lotor makes sure to remind you, that you cannot leave.

“Am I really that important to risk your life over?” Shiro asked, watching Keith gather up extra blankets and sheets from the interior design bots. 

“Well Lotor thinks your extremely valuable, as soon as he heard of your existence he tirelessly planned on getting you. What for? I have no idea, he gives orders and I take the orders” Keith explained voice falling a bit flat as he started to make the bed, the blankets and sheets were a deep black. 

“So he decides to risk your life” Shiro states with a displeased tone. Keith looks at him stunned, was that what Shiro was upset about? 

“Was that what you were getting at?” Keith asked stopping his motions of making the bed, Shiro looked at him and nodded.

“Yes” Shiro said picking up the unattended sheets and copied Keith previous actions.  
“Aren’t you curious as to why he wants you?” Keith questioned, he was getting the feeling Keith cared more about that then Shiro did. Shiro looked to be in thought for a moment before answering.

“Somewhat, as long as he doesn’t put me in a lab I don’t particularly care which may surprise you” Shiro explained, taking the blankets and looking at them funny. Yeah that was extremely surprising.

“How do you care so little?” Keith asked, it just boggles his mind how passive Shiro was about all of this. Sure Keith was being kind to him but if he was in Shiro’s position he’d be a lot more cautious about anyone trying to experiment on him or bust him out of some place for some unknown reason. Shiro thought about it for another moment messily placing the blanket on the bed as he did so.

“If it keeps me from going back to there, then I’m fine with my situation as it is now. What I’m not fine with is being the reason why you were hurt” Shiro stated looking at the pillows with confusion. Keith rubbed the back of his neck, he was beginning to feel uncomfortable with where the conversation was going. 

“It was my fault that I was in this situation in the first place, so don’t feel this misplaced guilt” Keith said, probably a little harsher than intended since Shiro looked taken aback by his comment. Keith took the pillow from Shiro’s hand and placed it on the bed and went for the bedroom door. 

“You’re free to roam the apartment, you’re welcome to anything to entertain yourself, the only things that are off limits is my room” Keith explained, then walking out of the room to recollect himself. Why was Shiro so hung up over him getting hurt, he should put more thought into himself than some stranger who only captured him because his boss ordered him too. 

The rest of the night there was an awkward tension, Shiro’s interactions with him seemed weird. When Keith went to go cook Shiro said he’d do it, when he rejected the offer Shiro looked stressed. Shiro then offered to bring him a drink, which again he rejected since he preferred to get things himself. It just seemed to make Shiro all the more stressed. Keith didn’t know how to soothe the situation so he turned on the TV inviting Shiro to watch it with him. Keith tried to make small talk here and there, but Shiro didn’t engage as much as he would have liked. The tension was making Keith feel antsy, he was shaking his leg and whittling with his knife. Maybe Shiro was bothered by Keith’s words from earlier, he did sound a little harsh. That was his issue, when he got uncomfortable like that he ended up being harsher than he intends to. His need to escape the uncomfortable situation puts him in a curt mood, which has bitten him in the ass plenty of times. 

“....I’m sorry” Shiro muttered, Keith barely heard despite sitting right next to him. Shiro wasn’t meeting his eyes instead he was looking down on the floor. His hand turned into a fist resting on his knees, his shoulders were tense and his expression looked conflicted.   
“What?” Keith questioned, seeing Shiro tense up even more.

“Thank you for letting me stay here, even if it is because your boss told you too. You’ve been so kind, I promise I wont be an annoyance” Shiro said looking Keith right into his eye. Where did this come from?

“You don’t have anything to apologize for, where is this coming from?” Keith asked, was this all because of his harsh comment earlier? 

“Is this because of earlier? Because I wasn’t mad at you or anything” Keith explained hoping to soothe the situation, Shiro looked taken aback. 

“Oh well….” Shiro said, eyes darting from side to side, trying to find the right words.  
“I’m just more annoyed at my boss more than anything” Keith said rubbing the back of his head.

“All I would like is a simple thanks and respecting the the apartment rules” Keith said catching Shiro’s gaze, he nodded.

“I can do that” Shiro said, offering a soft smile, to which Keith returned. They returned to watching the television show, after a few hours Keith decided it was time for him to get some sleep.   
“Alright, I’m going to sleep, if you need anything ask the bots and they’ll provide some universal charging packs” Keith sent off walking to his bathroom.

“Okay goodnight” Shiro called after him. Hopefully Shiro’s battery life wasn’t too complicated for the universal charging packs, the bots are stocked with, will work. He doesn’t want to commission Pidge for all nighters just to keep Shiro stocked. Plus he doesn’t want that to be an excuse for Lotor to take him earlier. It was easier on Keith’s conscious that way. After Keith finished his nightly routine, he walked back to the living.  
“I’m not sure if you have a shut down system but you’re free to move about as you please just don’t be loud” Keith said, he did not want to deal with being woken up because this android doesn’t have a shut off function. 

“Okay, no problem” Shiro said. Keith walked to his bedroom and curled up with the blankets and fell into a deep slumber. 

Keith stirs awake, he isn’t sure why he is awake, can’t hear anything that would cause him to wake. He tries to fall back asleep, but his dry mouth was to uncomfortable to handle. He stumbled down the hallway and into the kitchen, once he was satisfied with the cool beverage he went back into the living room to check on Shiro. 

“Hey Shiro you settling in good?” Keith asked rubbing his eyes, he vaguely watched the commercial that was on the television, when no reply came he turned his attention towards Shiro. His eyes widen in surprise to find Shiro looking like he was sleeping, his arms were crossed, he was sitting up right leaning on the couch and his rested uncomfortably on his side. It reminded him of a cat contorting it’s back in weird sleeping position, his nose and eyebrows were scrunched up. Was he having a bad dream? He’s heard of life like androids, but none of them could dream, sure comprehend consciousness but not dream. Keith got closer and noticed beads of sweat rolling down his face, he was sweating! He remembers checking out that file and everything read android, they couldn’t sweat, so why was Shiro sweating from a bad dream? 

“Don’t” Shiro mumbled in his sleep, Shiro began tossing and turning his head and mumbling incoherent words. Whatever he was dreaming, it was clearly a nightmare, not only was he dreaming but he was having a nightmare. Why did Galra corp make him so human like? Keith reached his hand out to shake him awake, not having the heart to watch him suffer. Shiro’s eyes popped open and shot up from his position grabbing Keith by the neck. The look on Shiro’s face scared him shitless, it was obvious Shiro still believed he was in the nightmare. His normally grey eyes were turned a disgusting bright yellow. 

“S-Shir...o” Keith managed to get out from having his neck so painfully squeezed, he clawed at Shiro’s hand before Shiro finally came too. His eyes clouded back to its natural grey color, he looked completely mortified and ashamed. His hand immediately fell from his neck and went into shiro’s other hand looking at it with disdain. Keith let in a huge intake of air.

“I-Keith-I didn’t mean-I” Shiro began looking at the red hand print forming on Keith’s neck. Keith understood, as scared as he was, he understood. 

“I know, you were having a bad dream and I went to wake you and I guess in your distress you mistook me for...whatever it was in your nightmare” Keith said after regaining a steady breath. Shiro looked guiltily down on the floor, unable to meet Keith in the eyes.

“I-” he tried to get out, Keith reach out his hand and placed it on his shoulders, this action turned Shiro’s eyes to meet his own.

“I understand how nightmares work, I’ll probably keep my distance when waking you up from a nightmare though” Keith said gently rubbing his neck. He’ll have to talk to Pidge about how to help androids with nightmare problems.

“Yes that would be a good idea” Shiro said, voice sounding a little detached. They stood there for a moment not saying a word.

“I’ll tell the bots to play relaxing music for you so you can get some...sleep? Rest?” Keith said not quite knowing what the proper term would be.

“..Thanks” Shiro said, looking guiltily at Keith’s neck, the mark will fade in pretty quickly but not soon enough. Keith isn’t sure how he’ll deal with the guilty looks.

“Get some sleep okay, you’ve been through a lot and sleep will help” Keith said walking back to his room. 

“Keith” Shiro called after him, he turned back and looked at Shiro.

“I’m sorry” he said, Keith smiled.

“Thank you, goodnight.”

 

“Alright get up, we’re going shopping for more clothes for you” Keith announced turning off the show Shiro was watching. Shiro pouted and tried to turn the television back on.

“I’m serious Shiro, you can’t just where the same thing all the time, and your plugsuit doesn’t count!” Keith argued, before the words could leave Shiro’s mouth.

“But Keiiiiiith” Shiro whined, as Keith started dragging him to the front door, they have been ‘arguing’ about going out and getting new clothes for a couple of hours now. Keith just doesn’t understand what the problem is. None of Keith’s clothes will fit, and he wasn’t about to spend excessive amount of time doing laundry, just so Shiro can have clean clothes daily. He didn’t even have underwear! 

“We also have to set up a fake ID for you, so we’ll have to see Pidge as well and she’s getting impatient because she is expecting us!” Keith said, feeling the last thread of his nonexistent patience, get snipped. Shiro looked down at the ground, the guilt evident in his expression.

“.....What if they find us?” Shiro asked, looking down at the ground, his hair hid his expression but Keith could only imagine he must have looked terrified. 

“Is that what this is about?” Keith questioned in a soft voice, whatever irritation he had previously it had faded away with Shiro’s statement. He made a soft nod still avoiding meeting Keith’s eyes. He didn’t even think of the possibility of being found. Lotor does such a fantastic job of wiping people’s traces that the thought never occurred to him. Plus Pidge’s cloaking device is unmatched, considering the government doesn’t know she exists in the first place. Keith hadn’t considered Shiro would be so worried.

“They’re not gonna find us, Pidge’s cloaking device remains unchallenged, plus Lotor’s influence will keep us safe as well. He’s not gonna let them take you” Keith said sitting down next to Shiro trying to get a glimpse of his face.

“That’s not what I meant, Keith what if-while we’re out, one of them recognizes me? I know there’s surveillance bots everywhere. And-And what if the bots identify me?” Shiro said finally looking up at Keith. Oh, that’s what bothering him, Keith didn’t know how he missed that but then again he still didn’t understand the apartment cheer Lance made at the annual end of the year party. Keith thought about it for a moment before striking an idea.

“Well in all honesty I didn’t think of that but since you brought it up we should do something about it before we leave. And I know exactly the thing to do” Keith said standing up and motioning for Shiro to do the same. Shiro raised his eyebrow, looking at him with uncertainty but followed Keith regardless. 

“What exactly are you going to do?” Shiro asked as Keith sat him down on this chair that he moved to the bathroom. Keith looked through his drawers for hair sears and electric razor. 

“Well I’m going to cut your hair, Pidge has told me a good way at confusing ID bots is to have asymmetric look” Keith explained pulling at his sears and hair razors. Shiro peered at the tools with curiosity. 

“Shame though, your hair is pretty too” Keith mumbled to himself not knowing Shiro had heard him. Keith laid out the tools and began prepping Shiro’s hair. Keith looked at the strands of hair not knowing how style the look, he wasn’t a hairstylist by any means. He has really only done his hair, and that has gotten him made fun of by Lance saying his hair looked like a mullet. But Keith just chalks that up to Lance being stupid because that’s not what mullets looked like. Well it didn’t have to look pretty, Shiro just needed to look different. Keith could do that. He put his hands through Shiro’s hair, it was incredibly soft and eerily similar to actual human hair. He then began cutting Shiro’s hair with sears getting as close to the roots as he could, he cut the white steak up to Shiro’s chin. Keith will buy hair dye for that when they are out, for now it will do. Keith cut most of the hair off except for the top layer of hair on his head, Keith took out one of his hair ties and put Shiro’s hair in a tiny bun. After the hair was cut, he picked up the electric razor and gave Shiro a buzzcut. It wasn’t the cleanest cut by any means but Keith was proud of his work. Those emo years, when he was younger, paid off. 

“Your expression certainly helps calm my nerves, I was worried..” Shiro said looking at Keith’s proud smile. 

“Well I’m no hairstylist but I think I did a good job, want to take a look?” Keith asked holding up a retro mirror, Shiro looked at it for a moment before nodding. Keith turned the retro mirror around letting Shiro see his reflection. Shiro’s reaction was instantaneous, his eyebrows shot up and he starting moving his head to get better angle of his new look. 

“Wow Keith this is amazing, this is better than what I imagined!” he praised, Keith couldn’t help but stand up straighter and puff out his chest with the compliments. 

“I’ll buy hair dye on our way back from Pidge’s but you can use one of my beanies for the time being” Keith said leaving to go grab one of his beanies. Shiro followed him the entire way. 

“What’s the hair dye for?” Shiro asked, after Keith handed him a red beanie.

“It’s to cover that white streak in your hair” Keith explained, looking through the hallway closet for some sunglasses. I know Pidge gave me those retro inspired holographic sunglasses, now where is it? Keith thought to himself, abandoning the search in the closet. He looked at his touchgram, and activated the locator for the sunglasses. The only good thing feature about anything Pidge gives you. On the hologram screen it had the sunglasses located on the nightstand of his room. Oh right, he had taken out his sunglasses when he first moved here because the whole apartment complex went to the beach and Hunk was very insistent that they all brought the proper equipment. Pidge really think of everything when designing her tech so he was able to convert it to average looking sunglasses. No one suspects the retro looking tech. Keith walked back to his bedroom and grabbed the sunglasses off his nightstand. He went to turn back to the living when he ran into a soft yet firm chest. Keith immediately stepped back, his face dusting with red. 

“I’m sorry!” Shiro said watching Keith’s face grow red from unknown reasons. Keith held up his arms and shook his head.

“Nononono! It’s fine! Just be careful when walking behind someone!” Keith said, shoving the sunglasses into Shiro’s hands and darting past him. I cannot believe I walked right into his chest! 

“Alright are we ready to leave now? It’s 3pm now” Keith said standing in front of the door of the apartment. Shiro with beanie and heart shaped, red sunglasses 

“I’m not recognizable am I?” Shiro asked looking at himself with the retro mirror, Keith nodded and gently took the mirror from his hands and placed it on the table stand. 

 

“This is what the outside world looks like?” Shiro asks in amazement of the bright colorful holograms and glowing circuits decorating the city. Keith felt a tug at his heartstrings at the statement. Maybe Lotor was right to leave Shiro is his care, that way at least he could experience life outside of a science lab. Keith parked his hover bike, in front of this small old tech antique shop. He pressed the button on the helmet choker and the helmet disappeared, Shiro motioned to do the same. 

“So this is Pidge’s place?” Shiro asked looking uncertaining through the windows. 

“Pidge loves the retro style tech I think the oldest refurbished tech she has is dated back from the early 2020’s” Keith explained walking past the automatic doors Shiro in tow. When they entered the shop, a welcome bot, welcomed them in.

“Request to see Pidge Gunderson” Keith said to the small prism hovering bot, it was Pidge’s own welcome bot design. She called him Rover. Shiro looked at the bot with wonder.

“Identification please” Rover asked, Keith flipped the bot off, this got Keith a scandalised look from Shiro. 

“Don’t be rude Keith!” Shiro chaistized.

“Code accepted: Welcome Keith, special access granted. Would you please move to the back” Rover explained, leading them to the back of the shop. Keith gave Shiro a smug look. 

“That’s just Pidge’s style for you” Keith simply explained, as the back of the store opened to the elevator; They stepped into the elevator, the doors closed and took them up. The elevator doors opened and Keith stepped into a massive room. It was dirty with tools, parts and garbage. Shiro followed a few steps behind, curling his nose in disgust. 

“Pidge!” Keith called out, dusting off a large part of the coach so he and Shiro can sit down on. Shiro stood awkwardly for a few seconds before Keith reached out and gently pulled him to the seat next to him. 

“We weren’t asked to be seated!” Shiro whispered is a distressed voice, keeping an eye out for Pidge.   
“It’s fine, she’s probably getting dressed behind some pile of garbage anyway” Keith explained nonchalantly. Shiro was about to protest when they heard objects falling and rusling of trash. From behind a large heap of parts poked out a small head. 

“Oh that’s what I heard!” Pidge said coming out from behind the heap of parts. Pidge immediately zero-ined on Shiro, causing him to shift uncomfortably in his seat.

“Who's your friend Keith?” Pidge asked with a glint in her eyes behind her scanner rims. 

“It involves Lotor okay, don’t get to excited you’re creeping him out, we came here to get a fake ID” Keith dismissed, watching as Pidge excitedly jumped from one position to another using her scanners on Shiro who looked extremely uncomfortable. 

“Hmmmm, this one’s interesting to say the least…..” Pidge said holding up her hand close to her face, a hologram screen appeared with notes about her current interest. Which was Shiro at this very moment. 

“Your hand!” Shiro exclaimed pointing at her human like hand, Pidge had on the chameleon setting, meaning it blended in with her human anatomy. The only difference between her hand and an organic had was the joint lines decorating it. 

“Pretty cool isn’t is? Designed it myself!” Pidge proudly said holding it up to give Shiro a better view. 

“It’s not my only upgrade either” Pidge said, holding out her arm and deactivating the chameleon setting on it. Shiro looked wide eyed at her. 

“She’s a cyborg, it’s pretty illegal, but Pidge is the best hacker given part of her brain is literally a computer. And also why she makes the best ID’s for humans, cyborgs and androids. None of her ID’s have been spotted as fake” Keith explained, as Pidge lifted up her shorts just a bit to show off the robotic prosthetics. Shiro turned his gaze from Pidge to his own, robotic looking hand. 

“Does that mean I’m a cyborg?” Shiro asked looking excitedly at the both of them who just stared at him.

“.....No...you’re an android….I think” Keith said, seeing the disappointment in Shiro’s eyes.

“Wait! You think?!” Pidge snapped her head at Keith looking flabbergasted, Shiro also turned his head to Keith awaiting for his response.

“Well, his skin and hair feels real, I just cut and shaved it Pidge! Plus he has dreams! Nightmares even! He was sweating!” Keith said, taking the beanie off of Shiro’s head. Pidge stared at them with disbelief. 

“If you hadn’t previously told me you’d be bringing over an android Lotor made you take care of, I would have been confused on why you were calling him an android, his skin replica is that good” Pidge said looking at the data her scanners collected. 

“What does that mean?” Shiro questioned looking a bit concerned about the implication of her words. Pidge thought about it for a moment before turning to Shiro.

“I guess what I’m trying to say is, your the closest to human an android has ever gotten I guess, my scanners are sensing organic material on you. And most scanners would mistake you for a cyborg, since they don’t know the context of you are a highly classified android” Pidge explained delicately as she can given the subject. Shiro thought of her words and nodded, Keith isn’t sure if he agreed with her or understood what she meant. His expression was neutral which could mean a numeral amount of things, Keith just hopes none of them were bad things.

“So what you’re saying is, since I scan as a cyborg, that’ll make it easier to make a fake I.D for me” Shiro stated, Pidge looked iffy she nodded slowly she looked unsure of herself. It would be a lie that the concern for Shiro thoughts were creeping up again, knowing full well this was the android Lotor ordered him to retrieve and has plans on testing him. Especially with Pidge’s revelation, but Keith beat those thoughts away, there was no point in thinking about that now. Besides Lotor doesn’t have the grand schemes of ruling or conquering worlds anyhow. 

“Yeah, partially. I am highly interested in the coding of your skin though as someone clearly interested in the robotics, replicating skin on androids is still something we have trouble with, we spend so much time with the AI systems we neglect the more human aspects we are trying to replicate” Pidge explained holding up her robotic prosthesis, Shiro gave a small smile.

“You’re a doozy because my scanners are picking up codes but also organic material. I don’t think my scanners are advanced enough to comprehend this level of robotics. The closest thing we have gotten to replicating skin is the plant gelatin which still feels off” Pidge rambled on, Keith new enough to understand what she was talking about but Keith wasn’t really interested in the subject. But the subject seemed to have Shiro’s attention, surprisingly he was taking the scanning and talking about his workings in stride given how sentient he is. A few moments later into Pidge’s info-dumping and speculation on what is used for Shiro’s skin and hair, Keith decided they needed to get back on track.

“Yeah sorry to cut in on this thrilling conversation, but I think we should get back on track on making the fake I.D” Keith said cutting into Pidge and Shiro’s conversation, well more of Pidge talking and Shiro being an engaged listener. Both of them looked at Keith, Pidge looked reluctant, not wanting to stop her gushing about robotics but nodded in agreement and moved to her I.D creation station. 

“Sor-” Shiro started, both Keith and Pidged looked at in surprised before stating he didn’t have to be.

“Yeah don’t worry about it, I can get to caught up in robotics I probably would have you both there for days if you’d let me” Pidge teased typing onto the screen, Shiro nodded not saying much more, instead he focused on fiddling with his hands. Keith got up from the couch and walked over to where Pidge was sitting. She didn’t look up from screen as he leaned against the desk.

“I have the data I got from the facility and coding they were working on for Shiro, I made a copy to give to you the other copies are with Lotor” Keith explained taking out the drives and placing them on the desk next to the screen Pidge was typing on. She glanced at them and pocketed them.

“I’ll let you know what I find, but out of all the things Lotor had you do, how was this the thing that has you questioning him?” Pidge asked in a hushed voice, despite being called out she at least had the heart to keep it private. Keith was silent for a moment, he had long since lost his trust in Lotor but this mission was more concerning considering it dealt with Garla corp.

“I have long since lost my trust with him but….I was never concerned he was some ‘I shall become the grand ruler of the world’ or anything. Still don’t but I guess I’m just concerned that this mission involves Galra corp.” Keith explained seeing out of the corner of his eye that Pidge had stopped mid type. He looked over at her and saw the shock on her face. Uh oh.

“That’s where Lotor sent you?! You have no idea how lucky you are to have escaped! Do you know what could have happened?!” Pidge yelled growing red with fury, not directed at him of course more directed at Lotor, but Keith wishes that her glare was directed at him as well. Keith held up his hands in defense. Shiro looked surprised, he immediately went to Keith’s side.

“I know what could have happen, believe me, that’s all I thought about the entire time” Keith admitted getting a more gentler look from Pidge but her face was still red from anger.

“Does Lotor know? You could have been done worse than killed” Pidge seethed crossing her arms trying to contain her concerned fury. In a way it touched Keith that someone would get so mad on his behalf, but it also made him feel guilty that she had gotten so mad because of him. He wanted to soothe her so she wouldn’t be so upset.

“You know how he is, besides everything turned out fine, your babies worked perfectly I have every faith in your tech and my abilities. I wasn’t even hurt!” Keith dismissed, getting a glare from Pidge, she looked entirely unconvinced. Shiro looked at him stunned that he would lie, but Shiro didn’t understand Pidge didn’t need to know that.

“Yes you were, you were shot” Shiro said looking at him in disbelief, Keith put his face in hand knowing how Pidge was gonna react.

“Are you fucking kidding me!? You were shot?! Where?! You need to be treated!” Pidge said pressing one of the buttons on the screen. This was the last thing he wanted.

“Nonononono! I’m fine! I put some healing goo on it!” Keith defended seeing Pidge’s doctor bots arrive.

“Actually I applied the healing goo” Shiro chimed in, Keith sighed and rubbed his face.

“Shiro applied the healing goo” Keith acknowledged looking up at a concerned Pidge.

“Good, no doubt that he is the one who convinced you to do something about it, I know exactly the kind of weapons Galra corp are holding. But my bots still need to take a look at it, there might be unseen damage” Pidge said in a tone that left no room for arguing, Keith sighed again and took off his shirt reluctantly, there was no point in arguing the faster he can calm her nerves the faster this whole thing can be over with. 

“See not that bad!” Keith said pointing to the gauze square on his chest Pidge looked at the wound and raised an eyebrow.

“That’s a lot of bruising, did you even bother to ice it?” Pidge asked bringing up a screen from the doctor bot.

“A bruise isn’t a big deal” Keith defended putting his shirt back on, Pidge forced air out of her nose, a sign she was frustrated. Keith didn’t understand why she was making a big deal of this, he was fine. The worst that happened was becoming a babysitter and getting shot, it didn’t even go all the way through!

“Well you’re lucky that was a warning shot from what the scanner is telling me, I’m gonna give you more advanced healing goo and ice goo for your bruise” Pidge said taking out the tubes of goo and handing it to Shiro.

“Since Keith is useless in taking care of himself please apply this twice a day for the healing and 9 hours for the ice goo” Pidge explained, getting a dutiful nod from Shiro. Oh great they’ve only known each other for 46 hours and Shiro has already betrayed him.

“I’ll do my best” Shiro promised with all seriousness, Keith rolled his eyes, as his face dusted red with embarrassment.   
“Good, Keith could use someone like you around” Pidge said with smile, the redness gone from her face and her body visibly relaxed she turned back to working on the I.D, Keith turned his head to Pidge at her statement.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Keith asked accusingly, Pidge didn’t look at him she focused setting up the finalization of the I.D. 

“It means precisely what it sounds like, someone who won't put up with that tough guy crap will do you some good. Don’t think I have forgotten that time where you almost lost your leg” Pidge brought up, Shiro looked at him in shock, what was this call out Keith’s past injury day? 

“You’re not gonna let that one go are you” Keith said more as a statement than a question, Pidge picked up the handheld 3D printer and shook her head.

“It might have been cool to design you a super cool prosthesis but, I’m glad I was able to save it, I still owe Lotor a punch for that one” Pidge stated beckoning Shiro to come closer, he did what he was told. 

“When don’t you feel like punching Lotor” Keith asked as a rhetorical question, as Pidge grabbed Shiro’s prosthetic hand and started putting the I.D on his finger tip. The tiny ink was in the shape as a fingerprint that was tattooed-like onto the hand. For human’s it was on your dominant hand and cyborg’s on the robotic prosthetic hand, if they had one that is. 

“When will he stop sending you on dangerous missions by yourself?” Pidge shot back nearly finishing the I.D. Keith shrugged and opened his mouth to reply but closed it when he couldn’t find a good answer to give.

“Exactly, so I’ll always feel like punching him, but I’m glad now I can worry less about you knowing Shiro’s here. So that’s a plus, that I won’t give to Lotor for” Pidge stated smiling at Shiro whose face faintly went red. 

“Y-you worry about me?” Keith questioned astounded by what he just heard. It made him feel even more guilty about him being shot by someone at Galra corp all the more discomforting for him. He didn’t want to be the cause of someone’s worry especially if they worry themselves out from it.

“Yes of course, why wouldn’t I?” Pidge asked, giving him this worried looked that caused him to shifted uncomfortably. He couldn’t handle the emotions that statement brought him, he needed to cool off stat. 

“I’m gonna go and get a drink” Keith said hurriedly leaving to look through the fridge. 

 

When Keith first met Pidge, it was more out of necessity since he had just been promoted to one of Lotor’s trusted members. He was alongside Zethrid, Ezor and Narti, the only other person he took orders from was from Axcia Lotor’s right hand. Keith needed intelligence outside of the gang, with Pidge he got an informant, a weapons dealer, and a hacker all in one. She is that good and he has no intentions of trying to recruit her, she didn’t need to get directly involved with Lotor. Afterall she is only 17. She had approached him first, wanting to know the whereabouts of her brother Matt. He promised to help her after her desperate plea. So far they haven’t found much but something alluding to Galra corp. Since then Pidge has helped him in so many ways, he feels guilty about not being able to help her further to find her brother. Maybe he’ll take another look at the facility, he certainly owes her that much. Especially after the leg incident. Keith opened the fridge and grabbed the plastic package of water and took a drink of it. He then dumped a little bit of water on his face and patted it into his skin. The water was nice cold it made him feel refreshed. He walked back over to Shiro and Pidge, who looked like things just wrapped up. 

So that’s it?” Shiro asked looking amazed at his robotic hand with the fingerprints, Pidged nodded and placed down the pen.

“Yep! All you need to do is place it on a I.D scanner plate and your good” Pidge explained, drawing up a screen and turning it over so Shiro could proper look at it.

“This is the information I’ve put on it, if there’s anything you want to change tell me now while my I.D stuff is out” Pidge explained as Shiro went through the information. His face suddenly reddened and averted his eyes from the screen, Pidge started snickering, not a good sign. 

“Uh why did you put roommate in relation to Keith?” Shiro asked still averting his eyes. Keith looked at him questioningly not knowing what he was saying.

“Because we are roommates Shiro” Keith stated simply, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. This only made Shiro’s blush deepen, he turned his face towards Keith but his eyes didn’t meet Keith’s.

“We-We’ve only know each other for 46 hours 49 minutes and 22 seconds…” Shiro stated face getting a comical red. Pidge burst out laughing and fell out of her seat. It took a minute for Keith to registered what Shiro was suggesting, this caused a deep flush to spread across his face as well. 

“That’s not what roommates mean!” Keith yelled hiding his face from a laughing Pidge. 

“O-h! Then what does it mean!?” Shiro asked voice sounding distressed, this fucking guy Keith thought to himself.

“It just means we room in the same apartment!” Keith explained pouring more cold water on his face. 

“Oh that was too funny” Pidge said wiping the tears from her redden face due to laughing so hard. Keith begrudging handed her his water, she grabbed it and took a long drink. 

“I didn’t realize” Shiro began to explained, Keith shook his head, he won’t hold it to him after all why would he know of that term. 

“It’s fine, you didn’t know” Keith said, giving Shiro a genuine smile which seemed to have calmed Shiro just a little bit. Keith looked back at Pidge to thank her for the I.D but saw a mischievous glint in her eyes that he didn’t like one bit. He eyes her warily watching her carefully to see what mischief she was gonna pull.

“Nice sweater Shiro, did your roommate give it to you?” Pidge asked in that annoying teasing voice of hers. Ever wanted to strangle a teenager? Yeah Keith felt that often. 

“Y-Yes actually he did” Shiro explained looking confused wondering why Pidge was asking such a question.

“Shut up Pidge, I didn’t have anything else that would fit him” Keith said with a blush forming on his cheeks, Shiro looked at him curiously. Pidge’s smile grew even wider at the statement.

“Don’t you say a word!” Keith threatened, getting a snicker from Pidge.

“Looks like a certain someone has competition now!” Pidge teased, getting a glare from Keith.

“You asked for it” Keith said rushing forward, trapping Pidge in a headlock and started giving her a nuggy. Shiro looked at the scene unfolding in front of him with confusion, he held up his arms as he considered stepping in between them. But seeing the smiles and hearing the laughter from both of them he decided not to.

“Alright alright I give!” Pidge said tapping on Keith forearm, he relented immediately even though he was not convinced she actually ‘give’. 

“Has your apartment mates met him yet? Or how do you plan on introducing him to everyone?” Pidge asked in a serious tone, if she planned on further teasing it was placed on hold for the meantime. Keith thought about her question, it wasn’t a matter of if his neighbors would figure out he had a hot new roommate, it was a matter of when. Hunk and Lance were the gossip kings of the apartment complex, nothing got passed them. Especially when Hunk was concerned and didn’t trust that new partner of yours, aka he was nosy as fuck. 

“Because from what you’ve told me, Lance and Hunk are nosy, and Lance will tell anyone even when they aren’t listening” Pidge brought up, Shiro raised his eyebrow at the statement. So far they have managed to avoid everyone, since Keith more or less knows everyone’s schedule, they were able to avoid meeting anyone. Keith wasn’t the greatest at improv and didn’t want to have to test those skills.

“Whose, Hunk and Lance?” Shiro asked, at this Pidge’s smirk creeped back onto her face and Keith immediately wanted to wipe it off. 

“Yeah Keith whose Hunk and Lance?” Pidge asked putting the emphasis on Hunk, which looked to not have been lost on Shiro. 

“Shut up Pidge, and they’re just my neighbors-well I guess our neighbors now. I figured it would be best to get his whole story and I.D stuff taken care of before introducing him to everyone” Keith answered sending an irritated glance at Pidge who snickered harder. 

“Just neighbors? I got the impression they were closer than just neighbors” Shiro questioned, turning his head towards Pidge who started laughing again. 

“Yeah, more or less that is the case. Lance is more of an annoyance though but he has calmed down a lot when he and Allura hooked up” Keith explained, getting a stunned look from Pidge.

“How in the hell did Lance score a babe like Allura?” Pidge questioned, the question of the century if you didn’t see them together. From what Hunk has told him it started off as Lance being annoying, but when Allura’s family died in a car accident a couple years back. Lance stepped up and helped her out, they became close friends and he, Allura and Hunk were inseparable. When Keith moved in, he thought it was only Lance who was pinning after Allura and nothing mutual, guess she wasn’t ready for commitment at the time.

“I don’t know, I just caught them making out at one of Lance’s parties, but they were close friends so I guess Allura just wasn’t ready or Hunk stepped in. I didn’t care to ask” Keith explained, Pidge nodded her head in acceptance.

“Well I guess the good thing is they wont pine after each other anymore. But I guess now you’ll have to deal with their honeymoon phase” Pidge said sitting back down on her chair and bringing up her legs to cross them. 

“Yeah I’m not looking forward to that” Keith said running his face thinking of all the flirting and displays of affection he’s accidentally gonna witness.

“They sound cute” Shiro chimed in with a pleased look on his face, Keith nodded in agreement. He may be annoyed by them but it was still sweet that they are happy together, it almost warms Keith’s cold bitter heart, almost.

“They can be, just don’t stay around them too long or it will give you a toothache” Keith said making Pidge snicker. 

“What are you laughing about now?” Keith said watching her try to stifle her laugh.

“Oh you just talk about how annoying they are but you are just a big of a sap as them. You’re just bitter” Pidge called out placing her hands on her legs to keep her legs from spilling over the sides of the chair. 

“Shut up, I know that” Keith defended face faintly going red from embarrassment, Shiro cocked his head to side in confusion.

“Why are you bitter?” Shiro innocently asked making Pidge laugh at Keith for the hundredth time today. Keith waved his hand dismissively not wanting to explain that part to him, just yet anyway.

“Well we’ve gotta get going, I still need to get clothes for him, thanks again for the ID” Keith said walking towards the door with Shiro in tow. Pidged waved to them while still sitting in her chair.

“Any time! And if Shiro has any androids problems contact me immediately and I’ll fix it right away” Pidge said, Shiro smiled at the kind offer.

“If we have need of it, we will. It was nice meeting you Pidge” Shiro said.

“You don’t have to be so formal, loosen up! It was nice to meet you too though! Make sure Keith doesn’t do impulsive dumb shit for me!” Pidge called out, Keith scowled at her and repeated jammed the screen to close the elevator doors. 

“I’ll do my best!” Shiro said confidently, the traitor, he was perfectly capable of calling his own shit out, thank you very much.

 

“There’s so many people here” Shiro said in an amused voice, eyes twinkling with each new sight he saw. 

“That’s the mall for you, it’s usually packed. I don’t particularly shop here, I usually shop at this second hand store because I don’t like crowds and don’t mind used clothes. But I figure I’d get you new clothes” Keith explained as they walked into this shop he vaguely remembers Lance talking about. He figures this was a good place to start from, from what he could remember it had everything that they really needed for Shiro. They started searching around picking up potential picks for try ons. He soon figured out that Shiro had terrible fashion sense, Keith didn’t have a strong fashion sense either but he knows he’s not that bad. 

“Are you sure about this one?” Keith asked hesitantly eyeing the hideous bright purple crop top with hot dogs all over it. Shiro nodded his excitedly.

“Yeah, to be honest, that’s one of the ones I’m most excited to try on” Shiro said placing it on his arm then going back to looking at the brightly colored pants. 

“Alright then” Keith said, letting Shiro choose whatever article of clothing his little heart desired. After Shiro sas done picking and choosing he looked like a clothes hanger. And Keith a shoes mannequin, he helped Shiro get situated in the dressing room before leaving and sitting down on the comfy chair. He played on his phone while Shiro tried everything on, when he came out of the dressing room clothes and shoes in tow, he looks unsure of himself.

“What's wrong? Didn’t like any of them?” Keith asked eyeing the clothes, remembering how Shiro’s eyes twinkled when he looked at them.

“Well yeah I like them but isn’t this the chips amount in pricing right?” Shiro asked grabbing one of the tags and showing it to Keith. Yeah this store was expensive but Lotor pays extremely well so it’s not like this was gonna break Keith’s bank.

“Don’t worry about the price, my boss pays well so this won’t even put a dent in what I have saved up” Keith said taking some of the clothes and walking towards registers. 

“All these fit right? You like these, so it’s not a big deal” Keith said placing the items on the counter. Shiro still looked unsure but put the items down on the counter as well.

“You’ve already done so much” Shiro said as the robot cashier started scanning the items. 

“I know what it’s like to not have clean clothes or have a roof over my head. I couldn’t just let you leave at my house knowing you didn’t have a change of clothes. So really it’s no big deal” Keith simply stated putting his payment card into the register. 

“Really?” Shiro questioned as he watched the robot put the clothes and shoes into several bags neatly. 

“Yeah, I was in a bad place several years ago and I can’t stand anyone else in the same position. So don’t feel guilty about this plus it won't look so strange to everyone” Keith said handing him a bag of clothes. Keith started walking towards the exist of the store not noticing the gentle look Shiro was giving him. 

“Anywhere else you want to go?” Keith asked as they stopped in front of one of the directories. They had went to several stores getting personal items and whatever little item that would help Shiro fit in. It still took some prodding from Keith to get Shiro comfortable with getting things but he loosened up a bit. Shiro was about to say something when Keith’s stomach so rudely interrupted with a roaring growl. Shiro looked startled and looked around to find the source of the growl. Keith’s face went red from embarrassment.

“Uh Shiro, that was my stomach” Keith said, Shiro looked confused.

“You can make your stomach growl? I didn’t realize you had that ability” Shiro said turning from confusion to impressed. Keith shook his head, it was pretty funny that Shiro thought it was an ability instead of a natural bodily function indicating that you need sustenance in order to keep functioning correctly and to keep on living.

“No, it’s not an ability, it’s a natural human function. It just means I’m hungry, I haven’t eaten since this morning it’s nearly 5 o’clock” Keith said briefly eyeing the directory screen that had a clock on it.

“Oh! Then I guess we should go to a….food court” Shiro awkwardly said as he intently looked at the mall directory screen. 

“Yeah, but can you eat?” Keith asked, he’s heard from Pidge that scientist are trying to design an android that could eat like a human but he wasn’t sure of Shiro;s battery system, if he needed to be charged or what. Shiro thought about it for a moment before answering.

“I don’t remember, my memory is pretty hazy actually” Shiro admitted rubbing the back of his neck. Keith stared at him not believing what he had just heard, how could Shiro not know something so vital. He’s gonna have to keep a close eye on Shiro just in case he shows signs of low battery life. 

“Well I guess you can just try to eat food, worst case scenario I have leftovers for dinner” Keith commented leading Shiro to the food court. He knew Shiro could sleep and had dreams but he didn’t know if that charged his batteries or not and Shiro hadn’t shown interest in eating or drinking this past couple of days. So it was a risk of potentially messing up his systems if he couldn’t process the food. If it truly does go to shit, he can always count on Pidge. It took them 20 minutes to figure out where they were going to eat, because Shiro couldn’t decide where he wanted to eat. Once they had figured out where they were going to eat, they got themselves seated down, Keith was the first to dig into his meal. Shiro stared at the meal in front of him for a few moments before picking up the sandwich and taking a bite. Shiro eyes lit up and took several more bites. This ‘android’ was eating, when Axcia comes by tomorrow she’s gonna be in for a surprise. Right she’s coming tomorrow to do experiments on him. I hope it doesn’t hurt him, Keith thought to himself.

“I take that as a sign that you can eat” Keith commented, watching Shiro devoir the sandwich. 

“Mhm!” Shiro hummed taking a large sip of his drink, now this raised many questions if Shiro could eat and drink. Does that mean he gets his energy from food? From what Pidge has told him androids were powered by either by solar or core batteries. 

“Does your insides feel fine? Well maybe feel isn’t the best word choice” Keith said thinking how Shiro probably doesn’t have any nerves in his body. 

“Well I wouldn’t call it a weird feeling but it does feel nice to have this in my stomach, I think it’s called” Shiro said licking the sauce from his thumb. It felt nice? 

“How’d it feel before?” Keith asked, putting down his noodles back into the bowl. Shiro looked in thought as he dug into his smoothie.

“Empty, is the best way to describe it” Shiro said happily enjoying his mango smoothie. Keith sat in disbelief, he really wanted to the the result of Pidge’s decoding of the info he got. He also was dreading/hoping for Axcia’s visit tomorrow. He was beyond curious as to what Shiro was, he was just to human, but everything was telling him he was an android. But at the same thing he felt bad knowing Shiro was still being treated like some kind of experiment instead of someone with sentient thought, but what more could he do. He owed Lotor everything, he was his boss and Keith was his employee. ‘Suddenly’ Keith didn’t feel like eating, looks like I’ll be eating leftovers after all he thought to himself begrudgingly.

“..Are you okay? You haven’t eaten much” Shiro said looking worriedly at Keith’s partially eaten noodle bowl. Keith looked down at his noodles then back up at Shiro.

“Yeah..I just lost my appetite, I’ll eat the rest of this later” Keith dismissed, moving to close up the bowl.

“Here you can finish my smoothie, it’s better than not eating anything” Shiro offered sliding over his smoothie, Keith was sure there was only a third left of it. He stared at the cup for a second before slowly reaching for it and taking a sip. Shiro looked satisfied and turned back to finishing off his sides.

 

After buying the hair dye for Shiro, they made their trek back home. It was a little difficult getting everything to fit onto his hoverbike but they managed. The real struggle was bringing everything up the stairs, without being noticed. 

“Are you sure you don’t want me to handle that?” Shiro asked watching Keith struggle with the bags. 

“I’m sure, besides my arms aren’t long enough to carry all the pairs of shoes, besides it’s not like I’m doing most of the work” Keith said adjusting the bags in his arms to a more comfort and stable position. Shiro looked unconvinced but didn’t protest, Keith stepped into the elevator with Shiro waiting to bring them up. The Elevator's door was about to close when a dark skinned hand stopped the door, letting in two more people and one of them was someone he would have preferred not meet at this moment. 

“Oh hello Keith, didn’t see you there” Allura greeted in her cheery voice, she was in a good mood.

“What’s up?” Keith greeted back noticing Allura and Lance matching fitness outfits, yes they were in fact that kind of couple. 

“We just came back from the gym, what are you up too?” Allura asked, in the corner of his eye he can see Lance making that smirk he always did when he was gonna annoy Keith. 

“Apparently he got himself a hot sugar daddy” Lance commented looking at Shiro, then at the bags full of clothing. Keith’s face immediately went red, Allura just uncomfortably smiled, and turned her attention to Lance mumbling ‘don’t say that, that’s not any of our business’. Which was worst to him that even Allura thought that this was what it looked liked. 

“Sugar daddy?” Shiro repeated giving Lance a confused look, Lance covered his mouth trying to suppress his laughter at the question, which only added to Lance’s laughter.

“It’s not like that Lance, besides these clothes aren’t for me” Keith explained, pointedly glaring at Lance, who still wore that ugly grin of his.

“Oh! So you got yourself a sugar baby! Didn’t know you had it in you Keith!” Lance teased, watching the blush on Keith’s face get even deeper. This was exactly the reason why he wanted to avoid everyone. 

“No! It’s not anything like that!” Keith held up his hands in defence, Lance didn’t looked convinced.

“It’s Not! I swear!” Keith said, if he hadn’t had to hold these bags of clothes he would have wrung Lance’s little twink neck. 

“Oh really, then why do you suddenly have a second bedroom in your apartment, and bought this hunk here a truck load of clothes, and judging from the brand on the bag, it’s the in trend kind” Lance brought up pointing at the “æsthetic” brand on the bag his smile on his face looked like he just won the argument. 

“He needed clothes! I wasn’t just gonna let have hand me down clothes!” Keith explained, seeing the way Lance’s eyes went to Shiro’s outfit then back towards him.

“Before you start, that’s all that I had that would fit him, I wasn’t about to let him stay in dirty clothes” Keith said attempting to cross his arms but failing.

“Besides if anyone can spot a sugar baby, it would be the sugar baby himself” Allura said giving Lance a disapproved look. Lance’s face immediately darkened.

“Allura!” he whined looking embarrassed, haha prick, it also explains why Lance has so many nice things. 

“Listen if you are gonna embarrass Keith and his friend then I’m gonna embarrass you” Allura chided sporting a slight blush of her own, she then turned her attention back towards Shiro and Keith.

“I believe we should introduce ourselves, I’m Allura and this one over here is my boyfriend Lance, we are friends of Keith. Pleasure to meet your acquaintance” Allura introduced, she held out her hand, Shiro just looked at her hand then back at her. She looked expectant, then she looked at his arms and quickly pulled her hand back. In her haste to quell the embarrassed mood she must have forgotten they were carrying bags of clothes.

“I’m Takashi Shirogane, but it’s Shiro for short” Shiro introduced, then doing a cataphoric move that made Keith hung his head down low in defeat. Shiro for some reason let go his the bags and imitated Allura’s gesture she had done previously. Both Lance and Allura both just looked at him in shock, he slowly took his hand back, his face dusting a faint red as he did so. There was a few moments of silence before Shiro bent down and picked everything up, luckily at least Lance and Allura helped him pick everything up since Keith currently was unable to help him. The elevator door opened indicating they reached their floor, the four of them stepped out walking along the open hallway towards their apartments.

“So, Shiro how’d you and Keith meet?” Allura inquired after the previous blunder had taken it’s moment of silence, shit they haven’t gone over this, Keith was a shit liar! 

“Yeah, considering Keith is such an antisocial hermit” Lance commented getting a chide from Allura and a death glare from Keith. 

“That’s not true Lance, he’s just not as social as everyone” Allura defended, a nice gesture on her behalf but Keith didn’t particularly care. It’s actually pretty true. Lance just shrugged and let Allura continue her investigation of Shiro.

“...Well, funny you should ask, he actually saved me” Shiro explained his face looked softer, dare Keith even say fond recalling the barely successful rescue mission. Lance and Allura looked amazed at this revelation. Nope can’t have that, they were already suspicious about his work and Keith would rather keep that on tight lips. He actually worked really hard to get these few friendships outside of his gang and he would rather not ruin that. Keith made an ugly in an attempt of diverting the attention off the subject.

“Oh come on Shiro, you don’t have paint it that way” Keith said looking at Shiro incredulously, he looked a little stunned at the look Keith was giving him but went on explaining to Allura and Lance.

“I was kicked out of my home, with only the clothes on back, Keith found me and took me in, I don’t know where I’d be if he hadn’t found me” Shiro finished giving the couple a blinding smile. 

“That’s so sweet, Keith you should have told us and we would’ve pitched in and helped” Allura said.

“Yeah, gheez and here I thought this was one of Keith’s mysterious job he has, oh well I’m still gonna tell everyone you got yourself a hot sugar baby. Just so everyone knows you are getting some, no need to thank me” Lance shrugged sticking out his tongue, no officer Lance cut off his own tongue. 

“I fucking swear Lance” Keith threatened, Lance held up his hands in defence, stepping way out of Keith’s range. As they arrived in front of Keith’s apartment door, this day just proves to get even more inconvenient because, the absolute last person he wanted to run into today, his next door neighbor who just so happens to be leaving his apartment right when Keith arrives to enter his. Keith shouldn’t really be surprised, he does have rotten luck, this is part of the reason why he can never beat anyone at poker. Hunk steps out into the open hallway and notices everyone crowding around Keith’s apartment door. 

“Hey Hunk just leaving for work?” Lance asked, as Hunk walked up to the group, Keith tried to get him and Shiro inside the apartment as quickly as possible but Shiro wasn’t cooperating, apparently the conversation between Hunk and Lance was more interesting.

“Yeah, I was suppose to have the day off but Cherry’s mother isn’t doing so well so I’m covering her shift, so who's the new guy?” Hunk asked looking towards Shiro and Keith. He was trying to push Shiro into the apartment but was unsuccessful and everyone just stared at Keith pressed up against Shiro. Keith removed himself from Shiro with a slight blush dusting his cheeks. 

“This is Keith’s new roommate Shiro! He was falling on hard times and Keith took him in” Allura explained, Shiro politely smiled this time not dropping anything.

“Hello Shiro I’m Hunk, as you can tell, I’ll be your neighbor!” Hunk introduced himself, waving adorably. 

“Oh so you’re Hunk” Shiro commented getting surprised looks from everyone, Keith immediately drops everything and gets in front of him ready to explain away his comment. 

“My coworkers have teased us relentless-” Keith began before getting a gentle cut off from Hunk.

“It’s fine! Better than not knowing who his neighbors will be right?” Hunk suggested looking a bit flustered himself. Keith slowly nodded and went to pick the drop items. Allura and Lance had already beat him to the punch and handed the bags to him. 

“Well I got to head out now, nice meeting you Shiro” Hunk said, waving his goodbyes to his friends. Keith let a breath he didn’t know he was holding, that went better than he thought but somehow this was worse. 

“....Well, before we leave, I just want to ask if you and Shiro would like to join us for this get together next week” Allura said handing out this holoscreen letter, it was blue and pink. Keith was already suspicious of what this get together is actually about, and the thought he’d of all people would be invited made him feel all silly. 

“A get together sounds fun!” Shiro said with a bright smile, Allura smiled shyly, Lance looked away rubbing the back of his head, yeah this was what he thought it was. 

“That’s great! If the either of you need anything feel free to drop by!” Allura said as she and Lance intertwined hands and walked off. Keith followed behind Shiro stepped into the apartment and placed the bags in Shiro room for him to sort out. 

“They seem nice, a bit strange but nice” Shiro commented as he started disrobing, which was Keith’s cue to leave.

“Yeah, they’ve made living here decent” Keith said as he left Shiro’s room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading the second installment of I'm just like you, please leave kudos and a comment if you enjoyed it! And if you want to talk to me about this fic my twitter handle is @GothSheith


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